Brooklyn Center City Council — Transcript
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Story
Brooklyn Center approves grants, green-lights adaptive baseball field
Girl Scout Silver Award Project - Interactive Playground Signs
E-bike and Motorized Wheeled Device Ordinance Amendments
Hennepin County Grants
Central Park Rotary Pollinator Garden Phase Two
Votes (4)
Miracle Field Proposal
Dissent: None
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
Gary Adelson and Drew Koenig presented a detailed proposal for a Miracle Field, an adaptive baseball field for special needs children. The discussion covered the benefits of the field, the buddy system, potential locations (Gleason Fields being ideal for its existing amenities), funding commitments ($100,000 upfront plus future contributions from Mr. Adelson), and operational aspects, including low maintenance and management by the athletic association. Board members were highly supportive, expressing their passion for the project and its inclusivity. It was also noted the field could be used by disabled veterans and seniors.
Girl Scout Silver Award Project - Interactive Playground Signs
Dissent: None
Moved by N/A · Seconded by N/A
Alexis, a Girl Scout, presented her Silver Award project focused on increasing child-guardian interaction at playgrounds by installing interactive signs. She demonstrated examples for Central Park, Weaver Lake, and Gleason Fields, outlining game ideas for various playground features. Alexis had raised $800 of the estimated $900 project cost. The board was exceptionally impressed by her poise, creativity, and understanding of the root issue of disconnected play. Staff confirmed they would move forward with design finalization and installation in September.
Consent Business Item I: Hennepin County Grants for Youth Activities and Play Area
Dissent: None
Moved by Board Chair Lewis [01:22:04,300] · Seconded by Board Member Alvey [01:22:19,830]
This item involved the acceptance of two Hennepin County grants. The first was a Youth Activities Grant for teen arts programming, initially stated as $6,000 in the packet but corrected to $5,000 during the meeting. The second was a Play Area Grant for $300,000 designated for an indoor toddler play structure in the new community center. The board approved the consent business after the correction to item I.
Central Park Rotary Pollinator Garden Phase Two
Dissent: None
Moved by Board Member Mielke [01:24:53,200] · Seconded by Vice Chairman Ferm [01:25:09,500]
Ben, the Parks and Planning Superintendent, presented the Rotary Club's request for support for the second phase of the pollinator garden at Central Park. The Rotary had secured a $15,000 grant for planting another 800 sq ft display garden and educational signage. They requested the Park Board approve an expenditure of $1,500 for the planting plan and design services. Ben noted that park staff involvement for turf removal and soil amendments would be minimal, and irrigation was already in place.
Notable Quotes (10)
A miracle League is a specially designed baseball field. Um, designed for kids with physical, cognitive or emotional disabilities.
My daughter special needs. We would play in the Lakeville field, which was the closest to our lived, was about ten miles away. And for years I’m like, why does Prior Lake not have one? Why doesn’t every community have one of these?
That’s what fair means is providing what is appropriate for the circumstance. And this kind of field is exactly that for these young kids and for the older kids to as well.
This is not a yellow light. This is very much a green light. We’d like to see more and we’d like to have some things to look at for approvals when the timing is right.
So the issue that I want to address is that playgrounds, um, are more focused for the kids. So it’s really easy for the adults to go sit down and just, like, supervise the kids while the kids, like, go and play alone. And that’s where you lose that, like child to guardian interaction.
I go to these parks, and a lot of, you know, parents that aren’t grandparents. I mean, I play with my grandson because he makes me, um, but a lot of them, you know, they are just kind of sitting on their phones and just, you know, they’re there isn’t that interaction. And it’s actually kind of bugged me a little.
So we really would like to install these and get these ordered. We’re really close to the design. Um, we’re going to add some QR codes basically on those. And we should be good to go. So we would like to start installing these in September...
For clarification, we had two grants from Hennepin County, one for $5,000 for arts programming, um, in the teens and then one for 300,000 for the um, playground at in the Aquatics Center. Yeah.
What they’re asking from the park board, um, is a commitment to pay for the, uh, planting plan in the design from Heidi’s Grow house for about $1,500.
There are some additional, um, work that park maintenance staff would perform to support this, mainly in, um, peeling back the the turf and the grass that’s in that area, doing a little bit of soil amendments. We do already have irrigation in that area as well. Um, so the, the impact on park staff would be pretty minimal.
Ordinances & Resolutions (10)
Informational presentation on establishing an adaptive baseball field.
Proposal for interactive playground signs to foster child-guardian engagement.
State laws referenced for aligning city ordinances on motorized wheeled devices.
City ordinance amended to update definitions of e-bikes, motorized scooters, and pathways.
City ordinance amended to clarify permitted and prohibited use of motorized wheeled devices in parks.
City ordinance amended to include enforcement policy for motorized wheeled devices, particularly concerning juveniles.
Grant of $5,000 for teen arts programming.
Grant of $300,000 for an indoor toddler play structure in the community center.
Ongoing work for master planning at Weaver Lake.
Continuation of a pollinator garden project at Central Park.